THE GREENHOUSE. 117 



building, it is invariably used for a mixture of plants of all 

 families. But there are certain appropriate plants which will 

 so far accommodate each other as to wants and sufferings, that 

 where one will live another will be doing w^ell, and by a Httle 

 care a goodly show of plants may be maintained. 



The ordinary form, and the best, for a greenhouse of this 

 kind, is a " lean-to," as it is called ; that is, a wall of the 

 proper height forms the back ; the front is two feet six of 

 brickwork, or thereabouts, and two feet of glass ; a table or 

 shelf, two feet wide, or, if the house be roomy, perhaps two 

 feet six inches, next the window, and a stage sloping like the 

 roo^ the front shelf the same height as the front table, and 

 rising, shelf above shelf, to the top. The width of the house 

 from front to back is generally according to the room ; it 

 should not be less than twelve feet ; but a roof made of two 

 eight-feet lights, and at an angle of forty-five degrees, would 

 be advisable. The heating required in common of a green- 

 house is only enough to keep out frost, and a degree or two 

 of frost out of doors will hardly penetrate in a night ; so that 

 many people prefer the common flue to hot- water pipes, as 

 the heating is more permanent, except in a hard and con- 

 tinued frost. 



The greenhouse, in places where there is no other glass 

 building, requires a careful selection of plants, first to keep 

 up a diversity, and second to mind that there be none but 

 ■will agree with each other in treatment, and do well with the 

 like attention. Camellias are the most important, because they 

 are noble plants in or out of bloom, and in themselves afibrd 

 considerable variety ; the red, white, blush, pink, and striped 

 form prett}'' contrasts ; and this family is by no means tender, 

 or difficult of management. Azalea indica, quite as hardy, 

 follows with its gorgeous flowers before the camellia has left 

 us, and of this we have scarlet, crimson, pink, light-rose, 

 purple, white, and striped. Hoveas give us a rich deep blue 

 pea-flower early in the spring, and are as hardy as either of 

 the above. Cytisus racemosus yields a rich perfume, and is 

 a perfect mass of golden-coloured flowers. It is impossible to 

 overlook geraniums, which are such general favourites, and 

 while we attend to some of the showy novelties, we must not 

 forget to provide half-a-dozen of the dwarf scarlets to stand 

 here and there in the house, for they give a brilliance which 

 hardly anything else will to the miscellaneous collection. 



